THIS WEEKEND The
Independence Day holiday frame saw a close race for first place between
two summer sequels but final grosses showed that Paramount's Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen edged out Fox's Ice
Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs over the Friday-to-Sunday span. Universal's
gangster drama Public Enemies opened
in third with strong results as studios provided many different moviegoing
options which ticket buyers were excited to see.

The robots of Transformers dropped
a steep 61% to $42.3M, according to final studio
figures, in the second weekend giving Paramount an eye-popping $293.4M
total after just 12 days. That puts Michael Bay's tentpole pic at number
31 on the all-time domestic blockbusters list right behind 1999's The
Sixth Sense. Ticket prices, of course, were much lower a decade
ago when Haley Joel Osment was seeing dead people. Fallen
also flew past Pixar's Up to become
this year's largest grosser and will top the $300M mark on Monday or Tuesday.

Saturday's Fourth of July holiday hit Transformers
and all movies hard since outdoor activities take people away from the
multiplexes. With Friday being a day off for most people, ticket sales
for the top ten surged to $63M. Saturday fell a sharp 36% to $40M while
Sunday bounced back with a 23% jump to $50M. Compared to the Optimus Prime
pic's daily grosses from last weekend, Friday dropped 51%, Saturday tumbled
73%, and Sunday is estimated to fall by 57%. Revenge
of the Fallen could find its way to a jaw-dropping domestic
final of $380-390M.

Fox reported a $41.7M Friday-to-Sunday tally for its new 3D animated
picture Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
with a healthy $66.7M in ticket sales since opening on Wednesday. The PG-rated
film averaged $10,171 from 4,099 sites over the three-day weekend period.
Despite three years of ticket price increases and extra surcharges theaters
are collecting for the 3D presentation, the toon basically needed five
days to gross a bit less than what its predecessor Ice
Age: The Meltdown did in its first three days. That film bowed
in March 2006 with $68M from 3,964 theaters on its way to $195.3M. Pixar's
3D flick Up grossed a similar $68.1M
in its first three days.

Mature audiences spent some cash too this holiday weekend. Johnny Depp's
gangster drama Public Enemies attracted
a solid turnout opening in third place with $25.3M over the weekend and
$40.1M over the five days since its Wednesday launch. The Universal release
averaged a strong $7,580 from 3,334 locations over the weekend. The performance
was on par with past R-rated star-driven summer dramas from director Michael
Mann. Collateral bowed to $24.7M in
2004 while 2006's Miami Vice opened
to $25.7M. Both launched on a Friday so comparisons are not exact. Final
grosses for those two reached $100M and $63.5M, respectively.

Co-starring Christian Bale, Enemies
earned good but not stellar reviews from critics. With so many films playing
to kids and teens at the moment, the studio connected with older adults
looking for serious fare over the holiday weekend. Men made up 53% of the
audience while the CinemaScore grade was a so-so B.

Two comedies aimed at adult audiences followed with the best holds in
the top ten. The Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds pic The
Proposal dipped only 31% to $12.9M boosting the 17-day tally
to $94.3M. The Hangover broke the $200M
mark over the weekend. The raunchy comedy collected $11.3M, off only 34%,
pushing its total to $205M.

Pixar's Up upped its total to a
sensational $264.8M following its $6.5M take in its sixth frame. With Ice
Age marching into multiplexes and stealing away 3D screens,
the flying house flick lost 831 playdates but dropped a reasonable 50%.
The film became the second biggest hit ever for the animation leader and
trails only Finding Nemo which banked
$339.7M in 2003. Up also rose to number
40 on the all-time blockbusters list ranking just behind Shrek
which grossed $267.7M in 2001.

The Cameron Diaz-Abigail Breslin tearjerker My
Sister's Keeper fell 54% in its second weekend to $5.8M for
seventh place. The Warner Bros. release has grossed $26.5M in ten days
and could find its way to a decent $40M. Sony's hostage thriller The
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 fell 54% to $2.5M lifting the cume to
$58.5M.

Two comedies dabbling with history rounded out the top ten. Sony's Year
One tumbled 61% to $2.3M and has taken in $38.3M to date while
Fox's Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
dropped 44% to $2M for a $167.7M cume.

The top ten films grossed $152.6M which was up 2% from last year when
Hancock opened in the top spot with
$62.6M ($103.9M in 5 days); but down 5% from 2007 when Transformers
debuted at number one with $70.5M ($155.4M over 6.5 days).

Compared to projections, Ice Age: Dawn of the
Dinosaurs opened a few notches below my five-day forecast of
$72M while Public Enemies was on target
with my five-day prediction of $41M.

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This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.